October 27, 2008

The Fall Guys

Being a football coach is not the most stable of jobs. Being a coordinator at Auburn or Troy is downright risky.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News surveyed 120 I-A teams for the number of coordinators since 1999, when Tommy Tuberville, above, made his debut at Auburn. Of the 15 coaches who have held the same job since 1999, Tuberville and Troy's Larry Blakeney have each burned through 10 coordinators, tops in the land.

On average, the 15 coaches have employed only 5.6 coordinators in 10 years.

Tuberville recently fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin and in reality is on his 11th coordinator, but he has yet to give interim play-caller Steve Ensminger the coordinator title.

In fairness, five of Tuberville's coordinators have left for better gigs. The other five have been fired or demoted.

Auburn currently has two offensive coordinators on the payroll — Franklin and Al Borges, who was cut loose last December.